


Two Headed Boy

by j_marquis



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Body Horror, Bonding, M/M, Smoking, Swearing, cid can dance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 15:53:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14168328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_marquis/pseuds/j_marquis
Summary: Vincent doesn't know what he is, what he became. Cid thinks he's alright. Or, an angry old pilot bonds with a brooding immortal.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't think this is going to be too overly long. I have too many unfinished projects already.

Cid hadn't even known him five minutes when he saw him change. He didn't know these people, but they were fighting the Shinra over the right to his Tiny Bronco, and both sides of the shit show seemed to think they had a right to his plane. A man, or a shadow of pitch black and blood red with the aim of a sniper but the eyes of a demon, screamed in unholy agony. Cid's eyes shot over at the scream, the sickening, all too familiar crunch of breaking bones, and a snarl, and the man was twisting, contorting, breaking. Fur like spines bloodied his pale skin as it came out, fangs and claws ripped their way out of human flesh, his jaw stretched into a muzzle. Cid could feel the agony ripping through him.

He didn't find out until later that even Vincent hadn't known the beast could come out like that.

That it was the first time anyone had seen it.

The monster was uncontrollable, it ripped through soldiers like they were nothing, blood and viscera coated it's claws, the mottled fur that poked through remnants of human skin hanging on to his body. Cid choked back bile, and started the plane. Whoever got on, got on, and fuck the other side. This wasn't his mess to get into, but he was sure as shit going to get out of it.

They dragged the fucking beast, thrashing and howling in the last throes of it's consciousness, onto the Tiny Bronco. But by the time they had crashed back into the sea, the thing was small, shaking and shivering, and there was no space on the small plane to avoid it. Had Cid not been piloting, he'd have dumped the damnable thing into the ocean. No, the girls, one in too short of a skirt, the other in pink, were covering it in a red cloak, sushing and soothing as it shook into something that resembled human once more. Cid felt like he was going to throw up.

"All right fuckwits. We're finding some dry land and pitching camp for the night. Gotta figure out what to do now." He announced, steering them towards shore. He had some camping supplies stored on the Bronco, enough to put the lot of them up relatively comfortably for the night. Provided the shaking, unconscious thing in the red didn't bring the monster back.

Once he'd docked, and the others climbed off of the Bronco, he finally got a good look at what passed for AVALANCHE. A red lion looking thing, a cat riding a huge moogle, a skinny little teenaged girl, a man with a gun for an arm, the two girls he noticed earlier, and what passed for their leader, who obviously had some kind of Shinra Mako treatment, judging by the glow in his eyes. And the monster, still unconscious, still human passing. What a fuckarow. Cid all but threw the camping equipment in their general direction, and sat next to the monster to smoke. He was unconscious. He wasn't allowed to care.

Cid looked over, and a metal claw was reaching for his cigarettes. So he put the lighter down beside them. If he'd turned into a giant monster tearing him up from the inside out until he passed out, he'd want a smoke too. Cid couldn't blame him. He heard the click click click of the lighter not quite lighting, a small hiss of annoyance. So he leaned over, lit the cigarette. Well fuck. The monster was gorgeous. Red gold eyes with a subtle glow, pale, pristine skin peeking out from his red cloak. Somehow, his clothing was still intact, completely covered save for one arm and his face. The hand that held the cigarette, Cid noticed, was a prosthetic, a gold claw over some leather, that presumably held the wiring that made it work. There was no way it could be real, the gold in places cut into the metal, the movement wasn't quite natural. But neither were his eyes, and neither was the monster he had just been.

"Hey." Cid offered.

The man went rigid, eyes wide, he looked over at Cid like he was frightened, sitting up, his hand going to a gun on a hip holster.

Cid raised his hands, averted his eyes. "Sorry, sorry."

"Where am I?" His voice was hoarse, raw. 

"On the coast. Near the Bone Village dig site."

"H-How?" Scrawny, pretty thing crushed his cigarette, looking at Cid like he might disappear at any moment, so Cid put a second in his own mouth for a moment to light it, passed it over. "Kids grabbed you when we were escaping on the Bronco. Guessing you're not real aware when you go all monster, are ya?"

"When I? What? I, I, what happened?"

"Oh fuck me." Cid grumbled. What had he gotten himself into this time? "Look, kiddo-"

"Vincent. It's Vincent."

"Fine, Vincent. Cid Highwind, by the way, but look. I don't know fuck all about what happened. But you were a big monster and now you're not, and you're bumming my cigarettes and your friends got me and the Bronco all wrapped up in this, but bottom line is I don't think you're half bad."

Vincent took a long time to speak, burning through another cigarette. "I was a monster."

"Yup. Nasty one, at that. Looks like it hurt you almost as much as it hurt the Shinra goons you ripped up."

Cid watched as Vincent flexed the metal claw, looked down at himself, at his arms, at what he was. And something occurred to Cid. Vincent had no idea what he was. 

"Hey, Vincent, I'm going to see how the kids and the cats are doing with the camp. Pretty sure I still have some beers in the Bronco. Want one?"

Vincent looked at him, a long moment. "Please."

"See? You can't be that bad. No one who drinks with me is all bad." Cid gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile.


	2. Chapter 2

No one else at the camp quite knew what had happened either.

"Well we couldn't very well just leave him there." The girl in pink protested, when Cid asked why they had grabbed the monster.

"Did you know he'd change back?"

"Well, no, but we had to take him with us."

Cid rolled his eyes. "Did you know he could do the whole giant rage monster thing?"

"Um, no?"

"We don't actually know a whole lot about him." The blonde kid in the SOLDIER uniform, he thought he'd heard someone call him Cloud, offered. "But he wants to help us find Sephiroth."

"So I'm guessin' that's what we're doin'. Finding Sephiroth and what then?"

"Stopping him."

Cid shrugged. If it put the Shinra in their place, he was in. If the Shinra didn't want him, didn't want the space program, then he didn't want them. He grabbed the beers out of the cooler on the Bronco, and went back to sit with Vincent.

"So they don't know who you are either?" He passed Vincent a beer, careful to avoid his prosthetic hand.

"I told them who I am. Vincent Valentine, formerly of the Turks."

"Formerly?" Cid scoffed, "People don't just up and leave the Turks."

Vincent didn't answer, and Cid didn't press. They all had their monsters, and Vincent's had just been brought to light in the worst way. So they drank in companionable silence, or as companionable as it could be when life was going to shit all around them. 

"They woke me two weeks ago." Vincent finally offered. "I barely know what's happened. I'm sorry, for what I became."

"Ain't no thing." Cid dismissed, took a long drink, lit another cigarette. "Seriously didn't know you could do that? The fuck happened to you, kiddo?"

Again, Vincent didn't answer. He held his hand silently out for the cigarettes, and Cid provided, Silence lapsed, he could hear the others chatting around the fire. Didn't pay attention to what they were saying, it hardly mattered. Whatever was going on, Cid would catch up later. He'd learn names, and learn what he was calling them anyway, later. He wasn't sure he had any loyalty to them, or to anyone at all. He could still go home, he was sure he could land the Bronco at the coast near Rocket Town, Shera would take him back with open arms like she always did. Without the Bronco, Shinra would leave him alone, he'd be able to settle into the town. Maybe build a new Bronco. Finally talk to Shera. Settle down.

Cid didn't know how to settle down. And even as he indulged in idle fantasies of abandoning these kids and running away home, he knew he wouldn't. They'd go to the Bone Village dig site in the morning, find whatever it was they were looking for, and Cid would continue taking them all over the Planet. Stopping whatever they were there to stop and sticking it to the Shinra. Maybe eventually Cid would bring himself to care. Find out what they were really after and why. Get a new airship. Steal it from the Shinra as revenge for shooting down the Bronco, maybe, or make these kids fund one.

A soft sound escaped his companion, and Cid looked over to see Vincent covering his face, scrubbing his gloved hand over angled features. The metal claw was twitching, fingers moving unnaturally, and Cid realized the sound was one of pain.

"Hey. Can I help?"

Vincent didn't answer, but this time Cid did push. He reached over, touched his shoulder. "That claw. It buggin' you?"

"I don't remember losing my arm."

"Can I take a look at the piece?" Cid pressed, scooting closer. "Maybe it got attached wonky or some shit."

He didn't know too much about prosthetics, but mechanics he could do. And he didn't like the idea of seeing Vincent in pain. The strange creature had been through more in the last six hours than Cid had seen men go through in a lifetime. Cid looked at the arm that was outstretched to him, Vincent's movement dripped resignation. Cid was gentle as he could be, moving his arm to look at the deep scarring where the prosthetic was attached, the veins were dark around the gold metal. Cid turned the arm, moved his fingers, a sympathetic wince when Vincent tried to hide his hiss of pain. But a little more flexing, testing and oiling the gears with some supplies from the Bronco's storage, and the pain seemed to ease. Not enough, the thing was still a mess, Cid could tell, but it helped some just to get oil and care on the old joints.

"Thank you." Vincent murmured, turned away from Cid. "You should get some rest."

"Heh, yeah. You too, fuck man, the goddamned day near killed us both."

"I'd rather keep watch. You don't know what could be in these woods."

"Yeah, more fuckholes like you." Cid meant it as a joke, but the disparaging look Vincent gave him was even funnier. He cackled out a small laugh, and retreated to the camp. "Well, keep watch. My smokes are right there if y'need one."

The girl in the pink, poking the fire while the others settled down to sleep, gave Cid a smile. "Is he alright? Are you alright?"

"He's a hot mess, but I think he'll make it. Me? About the same." He sat beside her, "Said he's keeping watch. Don't like to sleep or something?"

"I don't think many of us do. It's too easy to find nightmares these days. I'm Aerith, by the way, we haven't had a chance to introduce ourselves I guess."

"Yeah. Kind of been a steady stream of cold shit since y'all dragged me with you." Cid shrugged. "Guess ya got have plenty to get nightmares about, chasing the Shinra and a dead guy at the same time."

She nodded. "I think we could save the Planet, though. I'm really starting to believe it."

"Yeah, you kids save the Planet. I'm just here to drive you there."

She laughed, knocked her shoulder against his. "You're not as bad as you want us to think, Cid Highwind."

He wished he believed that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aftepes.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

Cid dreamed of the stars above the sky, the way they blinked and fell and the shapes the stars made if you traced your fingers between the lights. Once upon a time, on vacation in the Costa del Sol, he had laid on the beach with his father as the fire went out and his father had taught him the names of the stars, taking his small hand to trace lines from one star to the next, to the next and the next until it made a dragon.

"That's Bahamut, the guardian dragon."

"What does he guard?" Cid asked, with the innocence of childhood.

"He guards all of us. He's the protector of the Highwind people."

When the Shinra offered him a position in the Space program, in exchange for five years military service working on airships, he had thought of Bahamut, the guardian dragon, and laying on the beach tracing stars with his father. He dreamed if he went to space, he would see the great dragons, they would give him his wings and he would never have to land again. When Cid dreamed, he dreamed of flight. Layers of the airships, the test rockets, were stripped away and Cid just flew, on his own wings he flew. And the planet beneath him grew smaller and smaller, the glow around him, the stars and the Lifestream swirling through them, all protected by great dragons, each bigger than the Planet, their wings surrounded this tiny rock shooting through space, shielding it from the oncoming storm.

What storm?

A sword, too long, impossibly long, piercing the Planet itself, and tendrils of the Lifestream spilling out like the tentacles of some deep sea creature, filled with the blue glow of a SOLDIER's mako eyes. Twisting and warping and writhing while Cid just watched from the stars, pretending he didn't know, he didn't care. And he felt the pain as if it was his own, a great demon rising from the ashes to collect the souls of the dead.

This rock was dying, and Cid spun dizzying, crashing back towards it, not even Bahamut could protect him. Careening towards the sickening blues and greens of the Lifestream that wasn't the Lifestream, towards the hilt of the sword impossibly long, creating fissures in the rocks of the Planet, into the arms of the great demon that would collect them all in the end.

The demon smelled like cigarette smoke and machine oil, the kind you used to slick gears that had gone out of use. The demon held him in his arms, the way he gathered the dead, the way he would cradle the Lifestream at the end of days. Cid knew this, in his dreams, with the certainty that those dreams provided. He knew that none of this was good, or evil, it was simply meant to be. 

"Do other families have other stars?" Cid asked his father, when they traced the dragon on the beach.

"I think so." His father told him, showed him another guardian, a great, three headed dog. "One of the scientists says Cerberus was his family's guardian, but the way it was told to me was that the Cerberus guards the Lifestream from the souls who would do it harm. Guards the dead in the Lifestream, and all that."

"So the three headed dog is called Cerberus?"

"Yeah. And a girl made of ice. You see her, here?" His father showed him another trail of stars, it might have been a woman. "Call her Shiva. I'm sure she's someone's guardian star."

It was his father who taught him how to jump, how to really jump, high enough that landing would cause damage. His father who taught him how to fight with a spear, bought him his first beer, his first pack of cigarettes. Taught him to fix an engine, hotwire a car, drive, even took him on his first flight.

He dreamed of the warm sand at Costa del Sol, he dreamed of his father's rough, soldier's hand that guided his to trace bright lines between the stars. He dreamed of the Lifestream, the demon and the sword and the wild tendrils blue like Mako eyes and they were all there, and he was laying on his back in the sand and he was in the camp, next to the downed Tiny Bronco, surrounded by people who wanted to save the world.

He laid there, in that calm place between sleep and wake, listened to someone stoke the fire, he didn't open his eyes. But something was draped over him, someone must have given him a blanket, or a cloak. The smell of machine oil and cigarettes. Oh. The little self-sacrificing monster had given him his cloak. Well fuck. He'd better not expect anything in return.

But the cloak was warm, enveloping Cid in a way that seemed like it had to be larger than it actually was. And he had kept the fire going, or someone must have. He didn't know what time it was, didn't want to open his eyes to see if it was growing light. Light meant they had to keep moving. He had to go along with whatever shit for brains scheme these kids had come up with that they thought would save the world. Find a way to help. Kids needed all the help they could get, running around with monsters and things they didn't understand.

He didn't want to wake up.

But there was a warm red light, and he opened one eye to see the cloak had settled over his face, and the light was from the fire. It was still full dark, and so he opened his other eye, sat up slightly.

Vincent was sitting in front of the fire, curled into himself, his dark hair shrouded his face and if he noticed Cid leaning up on his elbows, he didn't react.

So Cid laid back, and he stared at the stars.


	4. Chapter 4

Morning crashed into their small camp with no regard to the exhaustion of the people inside. Cid let them move around him a short while, bundled up in the monster's cloak, listening to life begin to stir. And when he finally sat up, it was because that monster, Vincent, was pushing a cup of coffee into his hands, taking his cloak off Cid's shoulders.

"Been a while since you slept under the stars, Captain?" Vincent asked, sitting beside him with his own coffee.

"Too long." Cid conceded, curling his knees to his chest and breathing in the cheap campsite instant coffee. It was a soothing smell, bitter and oily and thick, the person who made it didn't know the proper ratio of water to coffee and Cid didn't mind one bit. It was perfect. It tasted a bit like the dying dry heaves of a coffee plant, and it reminded Cid of long nights living in the hangars while he repaired the Shinra war planes back from Wutai. Time he was alone, with only his thoughts and a tinny old radio while he kept his hands busy and bathed in engine grease.

The last time he could remember being truly happy.

"A few of us are going to go on ahead to the dig site, see if they know anything about the Keystone." The leader, the kid with the glowing SOLDIER Mako eyes, told him. "Think I should probably take Aerith with me, you guys mind breaking down the campsite and meeting us there?"

"Don't mind at all, boss man." Cid grumbled. "But I want to get a good look at the Bronco, so I'll be waiting with the ship when y'all are done at the site."

"I'll stay back with the captain." Vincent looked down. "I don't want to lose myself and become a monster in a fragile dig site."

"We need to deal with that whole rage monster thing." Barret, as the large man with the gun had introduced himself, offered.

Vincent only nodded.

"Hey, why don't me and Cait and Nanaki stay here and we'll help Vincent out while Cid works on the ship and you three go up to the site?" The girl in the too short skirt smiled like she wasn't afraid of the monster. Her eyes spoke otherwise. She was terrified of being left alone with Vincent. Cid felt a sudden, not quite logical defensiveness, he wanted to yell at her that Vincent was just another of the broken things they seemed to have picked up. Himself included.

"I want to go to the dig site!" The teenager chased after the Mako boy, Aerith, and Barret as they prepared to leave. "What if there's treasure and you don't know what it is and you ignore it when we could be rich?"

Cid couldn't help but laugh. It all seemed so mundane, just a bunch of kids on an adventure, no stakes, no wars or monsters and no corporation out for their heads. He wanted to believe life was that simple. He wanted the certainty that they all seemed to have, that it would go well, that they could be the ragtag team of miscreants out to save the world. What he had was a downed plane and a pair of haunting red eyes watching his every move.

"I want another cigarette." Vincent approached him. "I'll buy you a new pack if we ever see civilization again."

"Ain't no thing." Cid threw him the pack. "You need 'em more than me, monster boy."

"Can I help?"

Cid wanted to tell him he had done enough. That they had pulled him too far from home, downed his plane, that none of them could help. He didn't want their help. He'd chaperone them all around the world, he'd watch their heady idealism with envy in his old eyes, he'd offer his lance, if they needed it. But they had done enough. He wasn't helping them because they had done him a service in this world. He helped because he thought it might be the right thing.

Goddamned morals, always getting in his way.

"Yeah. Get up here, least you can hold shit aside for me so I can get into this baby's guts and see what I can fix."

Vincent climbed efficiently, gracefully, onto the Tiny Bronco, diligently holding things and moving things so Cid could dig into the engine, cursing to himself at the grounded plane. The other three kept their distance, as if they weren't all monsters themselves, some kind of cat thing, and the big red one were just as inhuman as Vincent. Not a one of them had any ground to stand on. Cid was half tempted to give them all an earful, at the way Vincent pretended he didn't notice.

Finally, the big red one came over. "Tifa wanted me to tell you two that lunch is ready."

He seemed awkward, the four legged thing, playing at human, his mouth wrapped around the common tongue with a gracelessness that said he was never built to speak it. It gave him a strange, stilted appearance, too formal, and yet unpracticed. Like a small child in his father's suit.

"Yeah, yeah. Be over there in a minute." Cid dismissed.

But Vincent followed Red, in amicable silence, like those two, out of all this mess, understood each other. Maybe they did. Maybe Cid was the loud, crass interloper seeing fear and resentment where there was none. After all, Vincent had gone with them willingly. More so than Cid had at least.

He jumped down from the plane, wiped his face on his shirt sleeve and perched at the campfire, where Tifa, Cid assumed that was her, with the tank top and the too short skirt, was serving up bowls of pork and beans. She had thrown on a loose black hoodie over her light clothes, but her strong shoulders and feminine figure still stood out. Cid took the bowl, snorted his gratitude.

"I can salvage the Bronco well enough to use it as a seaplane, but I'd need more parts to get her in the air again." He announced to the small group.

"Hopefully that'll get us where we need to go." Tifa smiled. "What about you, Vincent? Spent the whole morning helping Cid, we didn't get to talk to you at all."

Vincent picked idly at the food. "I don't know. What happened yesterday, I don't know if I should still be travelling with you. It may be too dangerous."

"Yeah, dangerous for our enemies." The cat, sitting on his moogle and ignoring the food, laughed aloud. "Ye' should stay, Valentine."

Vincent looked away. "What if I hurt one of you? I have no memory of what happened, and no control over what I did."

"You didn't hurt any of us yesterday." Red looked up, as if that was the end of that. "At least stay until we get Aerith to the temple. Maybe you can find some of your own answers."

Vincent looked to Cid first, hesitant, but he nodded. "Just until the temple. Then I'll find a way back to Nibelheim, and wait this out."


	5. Chapter 5

The others came back well after nightfall, with nothing to show for their efforts but exhaustion and warm food, donated from the camp at the dig site.

"They said someone else got to the Keystone, but that the temple is south of here, and a man in a black cloak has been looking for it." Cloud told them, both hands wrapped around a mug of tea. "We'll have to keep looking. No one can get the Black Materia without the Keystone."

Cid groaned. Not a word of this made any sense at all, he was just along for the ride. Beside him, Vincent was curled under his cloak, fidgeting restlessly with his gun. His eyes moved too quickly, fingers had a slight tremble to them. "So we're assuming the man in black was Sephiroth?"

He sounded nervous. Cid didn't dare ask. Of course they all had reason to be afraid of the idea of Sephiroth. The concept that someone that powerful had never really died, or had found a way to escape the Lifestream and run rampant with whatever insanity had killed him five years ago. But this wasn't fear of a man, what he heard in Vincent's voice. This was fear of an idea, fear of a concept, this was fear that something had, after all, come to pass.

But what, Cid couldn't ask.

They all had their pasts, they all had things they couldn't, or wouldn't talk about and Sephiroth was just another. Cid had none of it. His demons were laid bare, in the tilting rocket that would one day destroy his town, the stolen, grounded plane. The dog tags that rattled when he moved and the anger that seethed through him like something living.

"We have to." Aerith piped up, with a hesitant smile, "Or one of those things from Nibelheim?"

"Those are working for Sephiroth, or at least in his interests." Red told them, looked up from where he was curled around the fire. "They were all following in his steps."

Cloud hummed his assent. "But they didn't know who had gotten the Keystone."

"There's a Weapons Seller near Gongaga, deals in shit like that." Cid offered, "Bought some plane parts off of him once. He might know where it went."

Tifa grinned, and looked to Cloud to see if he agreed. "That sounds like a good place to start."

"Should be able to reach it with the Bronco." Cid lit a cigarette, wondered when he had gotten so invested in helping these kids out. "We can set out in the morning. I don't want to deal with navigating at night with the Tiny Bronco and not knowing what the fuck's out there in the sea."

"Plus, y'know, sleeping's important." Barrett added.

"Fuckin', yeah. That too." Cid nodded. "Morning, we'll see if the Bronco can get to the guy's house. He's a goddamned recluse, so I don't know."

"And then what? We steal it?" Yuffie saw her chance, and she took it. Cid thought he might like the kid, and all her restless energy. There was a cynicism to it he understood. Like Cid had been, his restless teenage years stolen away building airships for the Wutai War, weekends drunk hotwiring cars just to prove he could. At least Yuffie had joined a cause she thought was worth believing in. Or seemed to, maybe it was all a ruse, but Cid liked her well enough.

"No." Was Cloud's immediate response, and they all seemed to look to him as a leader. "We tell this weapons dealer what we need it for, and hope he sees reason."

"And if not?" Yuffie insisted.

"Then I suggest attempting theft." Vincent spoke up once more.

That was the last said on it. The rest of their dinner was spent talking about the dig site, about fixing the Bronco and traveling in the morning. About nothing at all, the silly small talk of children far in over their heads.

Vincent didn't talk with them. But he didn't talk with Cid, and he didn't smoke, he just let his hands wrap around the mug of tea Cid had shoved into his hands and stared at the fire. It highlighted all the shadows in his narrow face, the tired, sunken red eyes that didn't quite focus on anything real.

Cid touched his shoulder, just a small touch, Vincent's red cloak under his fingers.

"Hey, Vincent?"

Vincent looked startled, like he had been struck. He wasn't used to being touched. Cid knew that look, soldier's shock. He wondered, again, what Vincent had been through. What had turned him into this monster and what had scared him so badly.

"Highwind?" Vincent found his voice a moment too late.

"Take a walk with me, will ya?"

Vincent nodded, eased to his feet. His boots clicked against the ground, and he followed Cid out towards the Bronco. Cid lit a cigarette, offered Vincent the box.

He shook his head no, hung his head. "Why did you want me?"

"Want a lot of things, Valentine." Cid laughed, crass, and louder for the look of wry amusement that crossed Vincent's face. "No, I wanted to know you were alright. Getting real lost in your own head."

"And you do not want to see the Beast again."

"Ain't what I said, prettyboy."

Vincent scoffed. "So of all the people you have been dragged into chauffeuring around in a haphazard attempt to save the world, you've decided you're concerned about me?"

"No one else is. They all don't want to see the goddamned Beast again."

"They're as kind as they need to be, we all have the same goal, of sorts."

"Of sorts?" Cid echoed, exhaling smoke. 

"We all want to find Sephiroth, stop what it is Shinra has planned. They think they will save the world for it."

"What about you?"

"It's, it's something of a complicated story, Highwind, and not one I relish telling."

Cid let him lapse into silence, and they stared at the stars through the trees. Cid counted constellations in his head, and he tried not to notice how close they were, tried not to notice that he could feel Vincent's narrow shoulder against his. That their breathing had evened together, the rise and fall in tune. Vincent's had a tiny rattle, just at the end of the exhale, like something wasn't working quite right. Cid had a thought, a tiny, mad thought, irrational, that he wanted to open Vincent up and fix everything.

"Who do you want to save?" Cid finally asked. 

"The son of the woman I loved."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aftepes.tumblr.com
> 
> I thrive on comments and communication.

**Author's Note:**

> aftepes.tumblr.com


End file.
